As of November, Dell had a cash balance of $11 billion, making it attractive to investors. / Paul Sakuma, AP

by Roger Yu, USA TODAY, @RogerJYu

by Roger Yu, USA TODAY, @RogerJYu

Microsoft may invest in the financing needed to realize Dell's wishes to become a private company.

The Redmond, Wash.-based software giant would chip in $1 billion to $3 billion as private equity investors line up financing for the buyout of the embattled computer maker, according to CNBC. Dell's market capitalization totaled about $23 billion as of Tuesday.

The report cited people familiar with the negotiations who didn't want to be identified. Microsoft (MSFT) and Dell (DELL) had no comment.

The involvement of Microsoft, which licenses its operating system and other software to computer manufacturers, comes a week after reports that Dell is in talks with private equity investors for a leveraged buyout that would end its 25-year run as a publicly traded company.

Shares of Dell rose 2.2% and ended at $13.12 on Tuesday. Its stock has risen about 20% since Jan. 14, when Bloomberg News reported Dell is in talks with private investors. Microsoft shares fell 0.4% to end at $27.15 on Tuesday.

Silver Lake Partners, a private equity firm specializing in technology companies, is leading the efforts to line up financing, Bloomberg says.

Facing a global slowdown in PC consumption and consumers' increasing appetite for tablets to do simple everyday computing, Dell's PC business has been declining. In 2012, Dell shipped 38.7 million desktops and laptops worldwide, a 12.6% drop, according to research firm IDC. Its global market share fell to 11% from 12.2%.

Dell has been expanding its business into non-consumer areas, including enterprise software, security and storage. Venturing into uncharted territory would mean a short-term hit in profits and revenues, and the company may be better off undertaking the challenge without having to report quarterly earnings, analysts say.

In July, Dell paid $2.4 billion to buy Quest Software, a developer of software for corporate security and work computer "virtualization."

Dell also bought Perot Systems, a provider of IT services to large enterprise customers, for $3.9 billion in 2009.

As of November, Dell had a cash balance of $11 billion, making it attractive to investors despite its falling PC market share.